They were at Damien's place soon enough and Jade quickly realized why they hadn't been staying there all along because the entire place was flooded with people and decorations and entertainment of all sorts. Men dressed in elegant suits and women dressed in a varying range of dress from very short and low cut to long and flowing like Blair's.

As soon as Jade had stepped out of the limo, she was hit with a wave of the blaring music and was forced to cover her ears from the sound. She had never heard anything so loud in all of the worlds she had visited. Drake took her by the waist and led her alongside Dane and the rest, until they were fairly out of the deafening air. Damien had led them all to a small side door in the mansion and began to order them about at to once, beginning with Jade.

"Jade," his eye's met hers and latched on so that she couldn't move, "listen you will go with Amon as I said before into the ball. Blair go with them. Dane stay with me, please and you-"

He had turned to Drake, but seeming to look past him out into the night smiled and lifted a hand in the air motioning for whomever he was looking at to come over. Jade turned her head to catch sight of a girl bundled up in a thick cloak despite the hot humid summer air, scurrying over to where they all crowded.

Do you have any idea what all is going to happen? Jade asked Drake.

He shook his head, "No, but we soon will."

"Darling, I haven't seen you in forever," Dane said, taking the girl by the shoulder. Jade leaned her head this way and that trying to see the face under the hood, but she couldn't. "You shouldn't be here. You know that."

"I asked her to come," Damien muttered in a low voice, "she'll be fine and besides she has the healer," he turned towards the cloaked person, "I had half thought you weren't coming. Where is he?"

"Back there, Damien," a familiar voice whispered angrily from under the dark green cloth. "Thanks for asking. I'm doing fine. How are you?"

"He better be fit for the task," Damien growled from his wheelchair, ignoring her ending comment.

"Wait, why's Petra De'Vore here?" Amon shouted in his drunkenness.

"Oh, for God's sake," Damien hissed, "will you shut your damn mouth!" He paused to regain his composure, before saying very clearly so that his intoxicated younger brother could understand him, "take Jade and Blair and go to the ball. I'll meet you there later. Don't. I mean it do not make a scene. Blair watch him and none of you talk to the press until I'm there. Am I clear?"

As Blair and Amon gave their consent, Jade caught the bright glimmer of Petra's eye staring out at her from underneath the hood. She was wearing half a grin and that one eye was staring at her so maliciously, so darkly that it sent chills down Jade's spine.

"Damien," she stooped down a bit to rest her head on his shoulder, letting her hood fall off to reveal her stunning face and thick, glossy hair, which drooped down the front of Damien, "Jade should stay with us."

"Doll," Damien spoke softly but icily, "your antics don't work on me anymore than they do on Drake. If I had had any other choice you would not be here."

"I need Jade to help me with the healer, Damien," she snapped at him furiously as if he had wrongly accused her of something terrible.

She must have been incredibly angry because when Damien began to deny her once more saying, "Petra, you're spoiled into always getting your way, but we are doing this my-"

She grabbed the tip of his chin, forcing him to look up at her with her face barely a breath away from his. Jade wondered if she'd kiss him. Damien smiled at her boldness as she did lean down and try to kiss him, but he put a hand over her mouth. She stood up angrily, "I know that I cannot make you do a single thing unless you want to, but if you want your precious plan to work I need Jade."

"Why not Blair?" Drake hissed from where he stood by Jade defensively.

"This guy is a lunatic. If Jade is with me it will be easy to get information from me to you and Damien," she spoke her case. So she had known about the two of them the entire time. Jade sighed.

"Right, but that puts Damien in danger," Dane chimed in, glancing at his brother anxiously.

"She'll be fine. Trust me. Nothing can compare to what happened in Monorail right? Just," she sighed and reached for Damien's hand, "just please."

Damien rolled his eyes and shook her off like a spider and turning to Jade for once he asked her for her opinion, "Jade? I'll leave it up to you because I know for a fact that Petra can handle it on her own. Honestly I know that she's lying to me as per usual, but won't leave me be until you agree. So?"

Petra smiled sweetly at her and Dane shook his head from side to side, but she replied, "I'll do whatever you want me to Damien."

He squinted at her as if his eyes were his ears and he had heard her wrong, but after some time he shrugged, "So you're fine helping her drag some half crazed man in through this door then?"

She raised her eyebrows at him and glanced at Amon, "Well, I did save your life once."

He gave a short laugh at that and Jade thought that he was genuine, until he spat sarcastically, "Yes, maybe you shouldn't go I don't want to risk sinking into further debt with you my dear."


"Just a simple thank you," Drake sighed, whereupon Jade stepped on his foot.

Keeping Damien happy, remember?

Damien rolled his eyes at Drake's comment and then said, "All right then, Blair, Amon don't get into trouble," Blair frowned and grabbed her younger brother's arm, pulling him towards the main exit. Once they were out of sight, Damien told Dane and Drake to get inside. There was a room that they'd all be meeting in and Jade could find it through Drake. "Now the two of you," he said to Petra, "need to be very careful and quick. The sooner that this is over with the better."

"Oh, please just stop your worrying!" Petra complained. Jade watched her. The way her rose lips moved as she spoke and the words that came from those lips. Her voice was sweet, but cold and had an eloquent feel about it, making her words seemed rounded and almost arrogant.

Damien tilted his head to look up at her darkly, "Love, you realize my life is at stake."

"Really, you won't die if you aren't healed tonight," she said haughtily.

"You," Damien paused and a flash of anger flickered through his eyes, "you really don't know?"

Rolling her green eyes, she snapped, "Know what?"

"I'm in debt to Jade."

"Like in debt? But . . . but I thought that you were just over exaggerating." She muttered, glancing at Jade's healing scratch to the one in the exact same place on Damien's arm.

He raised his eyebrows at her and commanded her, "Do not let any harm come to her." As she nodded slowly to him with wide eyes, he smiled, "Dear, are you really going to wear that silly cape all night long though? It's ugly."

Her eyes narrowed at him in suspicion and she spat mockingly, "You aren't going to tell the press that you somehow nearly died and now you are in debt to your own son's lover?"

He laughed almost genuinely, "Hurry along then, we'll talk about the dress once the healing's through with." His eyes darted to find Jade's before she spun around.